Analysts Set Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) Price Target at $184.00

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the thirty-five ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, fourteen have given a hold recommendation, nineteen have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $184.00.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on WDAY shares. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on Workday from $300.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Citigroup reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Workday in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $216.00 price target on shares of Workday in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Workday in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Finally, Summit Redstone set a $275.00 target price on Workday in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th.

Workday Stock Performance

NASDAQ WDAY opened at $144.78 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $131.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $144.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. Workday has a 1 year low of $110.36 and a 1 year high of $249.85.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 21st. The software maker reported $2.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.51 by $0.15. Workday had a return on equity of 14.75% and a net margin of 8.60%.The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.52 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.23 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Workday will post 5.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Workday news, CFO Zane Rowe sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.70, for a total transaction of $862,200.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 288,460 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $41,451,702. This represents a 2.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Robert Enslin sold 5,374 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.90, for a total value of $724,952.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 239,469 shares in the company, valued at $32,304,368.10. This represents a 2.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 875,020 shares of company stock valued at $113,938,503 over the last three months. Insiders own 18.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Workday

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Workday during the fourth quarter valued at $448,804,000. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd raised its position in Workday by 40.1% in the 4th quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 55,605 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $11,943,000 after buying an additional 15,903 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its stake in Workday by 18.3% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 571,766 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $122,804,000 after acquiring an additional 88,384 shares during the period. Aurora Investment Counsel bought a new position in Workday during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,357,000. Finally, Morningstar Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Workday by 127.2% during the 4th quarter. Morningstar Investment Management LLC now owns 27,043 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $5,808,000 after acquiring an additional 15,138 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

About Workday

Workday, Inc (NASDAQ: WDAY) is a provider of cloud-based enterprise applications focused on human capital management (HCM) and financial management. Founded in 2005 by Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri following their tenure at PeopleSoft, the company develops software-as-a-service solutions that help organizations manage workforce and financial processes in a unified, cloud-native environment. Workday’s platform emphasizes continuous updates, data security, and a configurable architecture aimed at large and mid-sized enterprises.

The company’s product portfolio centers on Workday Human Capital Management and Workday Financial Management, with additional offerings for payroll, talent management, workforce planning and analytics.